[Heart metastasis, possibilities of surgical treatment? Apropos of 2 cases]

The pathological aspects of cardiac metastases are nowadays well known, but, whatever the treatment proposed, their clinical evolution is usually disappointing. Two cases of cardiac metastases are reported, one from carcinoma of the uterine cervix and one from a costal chondrosarcoma. Both patients died soon after surgical excision of heart metastases. It seems that whatever the treatment elected (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or cardiac surgery), the patient with a cardiac metastasis dies on the average within the year of the diagnosis. This poor prognosis makes it important to select the appropriate mode of therapy, probably with a rather restrictive approach to the use of heart surgery in this situation.